THE NEW YORKER ered that the trouble with her daughter was not hives but the second'-hand bed. She told herself that there was no rea- son to beçome excited or depressed. It could have happened to anyone She would take sensible measures to eradi- cate the pests, and everything would be all right. She went with Ramona to a hardware store and bought a spray gun and some insecticide. There was a seed counter at the store, and she let Ramona buy some seeds for her garden. This would keep the child busy while Esther sprayed the bed. She had the clerk wrap the spray gun up so that its shape would not be recognizable. There was no one in the house but the cook when she got back. She took Ramona into the garden. "You make little holes in the ground like this, dear," she said, "and then you put the seeds in, one at a time. In a fev,r weeks some beautiful flowers will come up out of the ground if we water them carefully and never, never, never step on them." She wanted to spend more time with the child, but it was getting late. W HEN Larry Hyler came home that night, he went directly up- stairs. Carol was in their bedroom. She was standing in the middle of the room, and she looked stricken. "\Vhat's the matter?" Larry asked. "Look in that ashtray, Larry. I found it in the bed." "Oh," Larry said. "I'll have to call . " an extermInator. " I ' h .. won t ave an extermInator In the house," Carol said. She stood stiffly and spoke in the voice of an outraged " I ' h d . woman. ve never , a one In my house. They leave a dreadful smell and everyone will know." "But you'll have to get an extern1i- nator, darling," Larry said. He put a hand on her arm. "It makes ITIe feel repulsive and 5. dirty," Carol said. She turned away from him.. "I've taken a scalding bath and put on clean clothes, and I still feel dirty. I suppose I must have gotten them on the MadIson Avenue bus. It's too disgusting." "It isn't that bad," Larry saId. "They're probably in the woodwork. It's an old house. In the Army we had them all the time." Someone knocked on the door, and when Larry asked who it was, Lucille Tremaine came In. She looked at Larry and then at Carol, and the distress in Caro]'s face must have been clear. "So you have them, too," she said. She fell in to a chair. "Get me a drink, Larry. I've got to have a drink. I just Cdme in. The cleaning woman left î note. I'd never seen one of them he- fore." "N either had I," Carol said. "Of course, I've heard about them. They used to have them in Paris." "And in Spain, too," Lucille said. "Oh, I think this is too revolting." Larry poured her a stiff drink of whiskey in a toothbrush glass and she gulped it down. "I'd die if anyone ,knew," she said. "When Jack hears about it, he's simply going to tear the house down. I'm afraid to tell him, literally afraid to tell him. It's the sort of thing he can't stan'd. He's never been to dinner at the Osborns' since the night he saw a cockroach in their pantry." "I feel dreadfully about it," Carol said. "I'm afraid it's all my fault. I must have gotten them on a Madison A venue b " us. "Oh, it isn't 'Your fault, darling," Lucille said. "It's that second-hand bed that Esther bought. She's up there spraying it now. I heard her when I . " came upstaIrs. "That bed in Ramona's room?" "Yes. Isn't it shocking? I've never heard of anything like it. Jack and I 6 25 are supposed to go to the Dodds' to- night and I really don't feel that I can. I don't feel that I ought to shake hands with anyone. I feel like a leper." The front door slammed. "There's Jack now," Lucille said, and hurried out of the room. "We had them in the Army all the time," Larry said. "It isn't as bad as you and Lucille seem to think. Let's go downstairs and have a Mar- . ." tlnI. Carol said nothing, but she followed Larry downstairs, and while he made the drinks she went to the window to look at her garden. It was just before dark, and the light was blue and deceptive. At first, Carol could not see what had happened. It looked to her as though someone had walked on the new grass and uprooted the annuals. She opened the window to get a better view. She saw that it was not a trick of light; the garden had been ruined. The uprooted annuals had already withered. There were foot- prints an over the grass, and some- one had trampled the tender border of parsley. "Larry! Larry, come and see what's happened!" "What's the matter, darling? " "She's ruined my garden," Carol said. "She's destroyed my garden. Oh, how can anyone be so thoughtless, how can anyone be so careless!" She began to cry. " N d 1 . " L ow, now, now, ar lng, arry said, and he put his arms around her. "We can get some new plants." He heard someone coming down the stairs. It was the T remaines. Their little boy, Davey, was with them. Jack was carrying two suitcases. "Oh, hello, Larry," Jack said. His voice was dry and angry. "We're going to the West- bury. We've got a room there for five u days. I don't know where we'll go aft- / I- - cJ.kb